Cardinal Pell is expected to be charged with sexual offences. Photo: AAP

Victoria Police have charged Cardinal George Pell with multiple serious sexual offences and have ordered him to appear in court next month.

Police confirmed Thursday that Australia’s most senior Catholic clergyman in the Vatican was summonsed to face charges over alleged historical child sex offences.

“The charges were today served on Cardinal Pell’s legal representatives in Melbourne and they have been lodged also at the Melbourne Magistrates Court,” Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton told a media conference.

The charges will send shockwaves through the Catholic Church both in Australia and around the world.

Cardinal Pell is the Vatican’s finance chief and considered the third most powerful person in the Catholic Church.

Australia has no extradition treaty with the Vatican, but Cardinal Pell is expected to return to fight the charges.

He previously refused to return to Australia to front the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016, citing illness.

He instead appeared via video link from Rome to refute allegations he helped cover-up abuse by other members of the clergy.

Deputy Commissioner Patton said police received advice from the Department of Public Prosecutions regarding the investigation in May.Three detectives from the Victoria Police Sano Taskforce travelled to Rome to interview Cardinal Pell about the allegations last October.

“Cardinal Pell has been treated the same as anyone else in this investigation,” he said.

“It is important to note that none of the allegations that have been made against Cardinal Pell have been tested in any court yet.

“Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process and so therefore it is important that the process is allowed to run its natural course.”

The allegations of sexual assault reportedly were made by two men now aged in their 40s, from Cardinal Pell’s home town of Ballarat.

The men said Cardinal Pell, then a parish priest, touched them inappropriately in the summer of 1978-79, when he was playing a throwing game with them at the city’s pool.

The ABC’s 7.30 program aired the details of the sexual abuse allegations against Cardinal Pell last year.

The Cardinal has vehemently denied the allegations, accusing the ABC of mounting a smear campaign against him and saying the broadcaster had “no licence to destroy the reputation of innocent people”.

He again denied any wrongdoing in July upon news he was being investigated

To Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and those other Australian politicians; Orthodox Christianity and Easter does not belong to Greece! Politicising it by calling it Greek is simply wrong and an insult to all the ‘other’ 250 million Orthodox Christians of the world. It also show a certain level of ignorance on the behalf of the Prime Minister.

So, please refrain from referring to the Orthodox Easter as being Greek. There is no need to mention Greece in reference to Orthodox Easter as they make up only a small group of a very broad group of people who practice the religion.The table below indicates that the number of followers in Russia is up to 100 million; the Ukraine up to 35 million; and Ethiopia 45 million. Even the USA has 5 million Orthodox followers! While Greece numbers only 10 million out of a worldwide total of 260 million (3.8%).

All our Prime Minister and the rest of our politicians need to do is make a simple adjustment and just refer to it as ‘Orthodox Easter’. Interestingly, Mr. Turnbull’s reference to Orthodox Easter at this time is peculiar, as Orthodox Easter is not celebrated until 28th April to 3rd May 2016. (reference: Macedonian Pravoslaven Kalendar 2016, pp 13-15)

As a devoted and proud Orthodox Christian follower, I am extremely hurt by the narrow view taken by Mr Turnbull’s Easter address this weekend and I know many other Orthodox Christians were too. To be referred to as ‘other‘ and to have the Greeks singled out it makes me feel that they are perhaps more important than any other Orthodox ethnic group in this wonderful and tolerant country of ours.

To all who celebrate the crucifixion and Ascension of Christ at this time – have a Happy and Holy Easter.

The current affairs magazine has branded Cardinal Pell “the “Cardinal of Luxury’’, claiming he last year spent half a million euros ($720,000) in six months setting up his new office after the Pope appointed him to reform Vatican finances.

His Eminence Cardinal George Pell

It claims the Pope questioned Cardinal Pell about the cost, which included furniture, rugs, made-to-measure clothing and business-class flights. The article also states the Pope was critical of an under-sink storage unit that cost €4,600 and asked: “What, is it made of solid gold? Can you tell me how you managed to spend half a million euros?’’

According to the magazine, Cardinal Pell replied: “Your Holiness, trust me. I have purchased only what is needed. I know what I’m doing.’’

L’Espresso says Cardinal Pell — the former archbishop of Sydney — hired his “personal bursar’’, fellow Australian Danny Casey, on a tax-free monthly salary of €15,000.

“The monsignore wants the best for his protege,’’ the article says. “He even rented an apartment for €2,900 per month in Via dei Coronari and has paid for quality furnishings for the office and the residence.’’

The bill, according to the ­report, included €33,000 for minor renovations, €7,292 for “tapezzeria’’ (wallpaper or upholstery), and nearly €47,000 for furniture and wardrobes.

Mr Casey previously worked as the business manager for the Archdiocese of Sydney, organised World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney and managed the purchase and restoration of a pilgrim house, Domus Australia, in Rome. In his new Vatican position, Mr Casey is in charge of Cardinal Pell’s project management office.

At the time of his appointment last June, he said it had “taken many hours of prayer and reflection before making the decision to relocate to Rome’’.

L’Espresso says the expenditure — which includes computers and office equipment — is “not bad for an entity that is not yet ­operational’’.

It says that in comparison, another Vatican office with five times more staff members spent €95,000 in the same period.

The article claims that Cardinal Pell regularly flies business class and spent $US1,103 ($1,585) on a flight from Rome to London last year.

“His travelling companion, the Australian priest Mark Withoos, paid only €274 for a seat on the same flight,’’ it says.

Cardinal Pell also allegedly billed the Vatican €2,508 for custom-made clerical clothing from the famed Gamarelli tailor — L’Espresso noted that the clergy usually “pay from their own ­pocket’’.

L’Espresso says the spending is notable given that Cardinal Pell has ordered a spending review across the Vatican to ensure money is spent helping the poor.

Cardinal Pell ruffled feathers in December when he boasted that he had “discovered’’ hundreds of millions of euros that the Vatican had “tucked away’’.

The church near the Balea Lac Resort is at an altitude of 2000m and 300 north-west of Bucharest, is a copy of an old church in Transylvania. It is made completely of ice blocks cemented together with snow and water. The church has been blessed and used for services by Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant clerics.

Football-mad Pope Francis “might” watch the World Cup final on Sunday between his native Argentina and Germany, but is unlikely to do so alongside his German predecessor Benedict XVI according to the Vatican.

But a Vatican source claims he “excluded categorically” the prospect of Benedict XVI, an academic theologian with a liking for classical music, sitting down in front of his television set to watch the face-off.

“It’s really not his thing, he is not a fan. It would be like inflicting an infinite penitence on him at the age of 87,” the source adds despite the wishful thinking of the internet meme above. “He has never been able to watch a football match from beginning to end in his life.”

It was saddening to learn about the arrest of the young performers that appeared in the video below.

The photographer and her friends was arrested for what Tehran police chief Hossen Sajedinia called a “vulgar clip which hurt public chastity”.

The arrest on Tuesday of these young performers sparked a media frenzy and a storm on social media, with many Iranians expressing shock at the arrests. Some observers question whether it is a “crime to be happy in Iran.”

In the video, the girls are seen not observing the hijab, a series of rules that oblige women in Iran to cover their hair and much of their body when outside. Further, dancing is prohibited in the Islamic republic, while mingling with the opposite sex is strictly frowned upon. The clip was seen as an affront to public morality and decency by Iranian authorities.

Iranian conservatives are wary of young Iranians abandoning Islamic teachings in favour of a Western values – a phenomenon authorities and leaders describe as part of a “soft-war” against Iran.

This clip should be seen as an expression of youthful exuberance and happiness, and not an attack against the state.

This Is Me

George Brown is a decorated soldier and health professional and 40 year veteran in the field of emergency nursing and paramedical practice, both military and civilian areas. He has senior management positions in the delivery of paramedical services. Opinions expressed in these columns are solely those of the author and should not be construed as being those of any organization to which he may be connected.

He was born in the UK of Scottish ancestry from Aberdeen and a member of the Clan MacDougall. He is a member of the Macedonian community in Newcastle, and speaks fluent Macedonian. While this may seem a contradiction, it is his wife who is Macedonian, and as a result he embraced the Macedonian language and the Orthodox faith.

His interests include aviation and digital photography, and he always enjoys the opportunity to combine the two. Navigate to his Flickr site to see recent additions to his photo library.